TRANSLATED BY WALTER MAY EDITED BY JOHN COLARUSSO AND TAMIRLAN SALBIEV

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS PRINCETON AND OXFORD

Очерки истории алан: Владимир Кузнецов

kənθə - city
nap - people
spaδə - army
šaw - to go
ganza - treasure
wənwən - victorious
kəla - all
x(ə)δe‌k - alloted
ati - so that

This study discusses the relations between the peoples known as Sarmatians, Alans, Vandals, and other groups in the context of fluid identities and political affinities of Late Antiquity and early medieval Europe. It is argued that the Van-dals underwent a substantial transformation from being dominantely farmers to centre on horse breeding and mounted warfare. In this process, Sarmatian and Alanian influence on the Vandals was crucial. One could speak of a "Sarma-tisation' of Vandal warfare, economy, dressing, and conduct, but also of a Vandal confederation of identities to which other 'barbarian' peoples could be con-nected.

The continuous migration of the Sarmatians from East to West is still considered an historical fact. The fundaments of this theory, however, are tricky: the Iranian tie of all the populations on the north-eastern edge of the ancient world is too weak to support the existence of one ancient ethnos; our current image of the Sarmatians is the result of loose readings of texts and archaeological evidence, nourished by nationalistic convictions. This paper de-constructs the currently accepted Sarmatian migrations and proposes a new history of the invention of the Sarmatians, through the critical re-examination of the linguistic and archaeological data as well as of the historiographical theses of the last 500 years.

In this paper, we test the hypothesis that increased Caucasian component in contemporary SE Europeans, has been introduced on the Balkans by migrating Iron Age steppe dwellers from Pontic-Caspian steppe. We analyze available DNA datasets from both ancient and contemporary samples and identify a Caucasian signal, carried to Balkan populations by the nomadic dwellers of IA Saltovo-Maiaki Culture, located on the northern slope of Caucasus Mountains and adjacent steppe regions. We also identify two additional sources of Caucasian admixture in SEE populations, which are not specific to Bulgarian population only. Based on the results from our population genetic analysis we suggest that contemporary Bulgarians are an admixture of ancestral Slavonic groups, rich on locally absorbed EEF DNA and Proto Bulgarians, rich on Caucasian DNA and genetically related to the bearers of the Saltovo-Mayaki Culture from 6-8 century AD.